Monthly Archives: October 2016

French energy company ENGIE said Friday it’s now the first European player to have a framework to do work in a Ukrainian gas system overshadowed by Russia. In the presence of French Finance Minister Michel Sapin and Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroisman, the French company, formerly known as GDF Suez, said it signed a framework…

If you invade, don’t expect our people to make it easy for you. That was the message Lithuania sent to Russia Friday as it published a manual for its three million citizens on how to defend their homeland in the event of invasion. Since Russia annexed Crimea two years ago, Lithuanians have been on edge….

Ukraine’s envoy for humanitarian issues presents shocking statistics of Ukraine war at UN Security Council meeting 495 Ukrainian women and 68 children had been killed since Russia invaded eastern Ukraine, First Deputy Chairperson of Ukraine’s parliament and Ukrainian envoy for humanitarian issues at Minsk peace talks Iryna Gerashchenko announced at a UN Security Council meeting…

In a case where those who live by hacking may die by it, Vladislav Surkov, the Kremlin’s point man on Ukrainian policy, has had his computer hacked by Ukrainian activists who have now posted online two documents detailing on the Kremlin plans to destabilize Ukraine over the next five months. A Ukrainian hacker group, CyberHunta,said…

In September the European Union Council prolonged by six more months the application of EU sanctions targeting 146 persons and 37 entities Four more countries have prolonged sanctions against Moscow for another six months. Montenegro, Albania, Liechtenstein and Norway imposed restrictions against the Kremlin for violation of the sovereignty of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. Federica…

The murder of Arseniy Pavlov known as Motorola, the commander of a Donetsk-based unit of Russian-backed mercenaries, made international headlines on Oct. 16. Pavlov was only one of many separatist leaders killed in the east of Ukraine since early 2015. The separatists blamed the Ukrainian army in most of the killings, but some of the killings…

A military chief of Ukraine’s pro-Russian rebels, Arseny Pavlov, was killed in a bomb attack in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, local authorities have said, calling it a “declaration of war.” Russia, which annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, backs a separatist, pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine that has claimed nearly 10,000 lives. Pavlov, better known…

The shaky cease-fire in eastern Ukraine has reached a “tipping point,” a high-level Ukrainian government official says. The official’s comments underscore how geopolitical events—from the war in Syria to the rise of nationalist parties across Europe—have tested international resolve to maintain sanctions on Russia. “There is no alternative” to the current cease-fire, the official said…

Russia claimed guilty of aggression and responsible for crimes in occupied Ukrainian territories The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has said that only “significant and measurable progress” by Russia towards implementation of previous resolutions of the Assembly can form the basis for restoration of a fully-fledged, mutually respectful dialogue, PACE official site informs….

It remains in the U.S. interest to support Ukraine, Brookings Institution says A major foreign policy challenge that will confront the new U.S. administration from day one is Ukraine and its conflict with Russia, Brookings scholars Fiona Hill and Steven Pifer say in their brief on the biggest issues facing the U.S. this election season. The February 2015 Minsk…